On Tuesday's NBC Nightly News, anchor Brian Williams brought
on political director Chuck Todd to give a "damage assessment" for
Republicans in the wake of the Todd Akin controversy. Todd attempted to
blame the conservative grassroots for the uproar: "...the Tea
Party effect....will maybe cost Mitch McConnell a shot at controlling
the United States Senate. Their own infighting has done this." [Listen to the audio]

What Todd failed to mention was that Tea Party Express and former vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin backed one of Akin's opponents, Sarah Steelman, in the Missouri Republican Senate primary.

Todd went on to tout the latest NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll
and hyped bad numbers for the GOP: "And I wanted to start off with what
I think is a weight on Mitt Romney that we don't talk about enough and
that is the image of the Republican Party. It has to do with Todd Akin,
all of this is having an impact. And look at these numbers, negative
feelings toward the Republican Party, 45%, just 36% have a positive
feeling." It's important to note that the poll was conducted before
Akin's controversial comments on Sunday.

Todd went so far as to suggest such numbers were the equivalent of
President Obama's poor performance on the economy: "I think this weight
that Mitt Romney drags around, the brand of the Republican Party, is as
heavy or almost as heavy as the weight of the economy President Obama
has to drag around."

Wrapping up his report on the poll, Todd eagerly pushed positive
results for Obama: "He's ahead because of what I call the gut-check
questions....these gut-check values economy questions, the President
leads, and he leads by a lot." Todd only briefly mentioned that Romney
still led the President on the issue of the economy.

On Wednesday's Today, Todd promoted the same "gut-check questions":

Why is the President ahead? Well, why? The answer to this question is
he is beating Romney on what I call all the gut-check questions. The
idea of, who cares about average people? The President leads by 22
points. Who's in the mainstream? Who's out of step? A majority of people
believe the President's, quote, "in the mainstream." A majority of
people believe Mitt Romney's out of step with Americans' thinking. When
you put all those together, these gut-check questions. On the issue of
economy, yes, Romney leads. It's not by a lot. But on gut-check
questions, values questions, it's the President.

Here is a full transcript of Todd's August 21 Nightly News exchange with Williams:

7:04PM ET

BRIAN WILLIAMS: Chuck Todd, our political director, chief White House
correspondent, here with us in the studio. And I guess from you I need a
damage assessment thus far to the GOP, the wider party?

CHUCK
TODD: First of all, it's breathtaking. The force and artillery of the
Republican Party that has dropped upon Todd Akin's head and he hasn't
gotten out of the race. But this basically will cost them control of the
United States Senate, and more importantly, the Tea Party effect. When
you go back to 2010, you go up to 2012, will maybe cost Mitch McConnell a
shot at controlling the United States Senate. Their own infighting has
done this.

WILLIAMS: Now you are ostensibly here to debut what is the first
polling we've done since Paul Ryan was added to the Romney ticket, and
what will be the last polling to go now before we start the GOP
convention.

TODD: It is. And I wanted to start off with what I think is a weight on
Mitt Romney that we don't talk about enough and that is the image of
the Republican Party. It has to do with Todd Akin, all of this is having
an impact. And look at these numbers, negative feelings toward the
Republican Party, 45%, just 36% have a positive feeling. The Democratic
Party, split, barely above water at 42-40. But I think this weight that
Mitt Romney drags around, the brand of the Republican Party, is as heavy
or almost as heavy as the weight of the economy President Obama has to
drag around.

Now, the head-to-head match-up, the President has a lead, 48-44. A
little bit of a tick up for Mitt Romney with the Ryan pick, but not much
from our last poll. Where it's more important for Romney, where he did
move up, was in the swing states. He went from an eight-point deficit to
just a three-point deficit, 49/46. So here, the Romney campaign says,
'Hey, you know what? Maybe Ryan did provide a bump.' But you gotta ask
yourself, why is the President ahead? He's ahead because of what I call
the gut-check questions. One of them, who would care more about average
people? And in our poll, look at this advantage for President Obama,
52-30, 22-point advantage. Romney leads on the economy. But on these
gut-check values economy questions, the President leads, and he leads by
a lot.

WILLIAMS: And now for the GOP into the convention. Chuck Todd, as always, thanks.

-- Kyle Drennen is a news analyst at the Media Research Center. Click here to follow Kyle Drennen on Twitter.

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